Briggsville dam to come down this winter
The final specifications for the Briggsville Dam are available for download as a pdf file.
The Bid Package Planset is likewise available for download.
When in 2006 Cascade Paper Co., the new owners of the former Strong-Hewat woolen mill in the Briggsville section of Clarksburg, discovered they had also acquired liability for the dam beside Rte. 8, they called Trout Unlimited. Good move. TU called Massachusetts Riverways (Department of Fish and Game) and HooRWA. As a result, with a lot of help from friends, the dam will come down late this fall or early this winter.
The dam no longer impounds water, as the area behind it is totally filled with cobbles. The removal will restore habitat in a cold water ecosystem on the North Branch of the Hoosic River. This trout fishery is stocked and also contains wild trout. The North Branch will be free flowing 10 miles from its headwaters at Alpenwald to the dam at Natural Bridge State Park.
Dam inspectors estimated that repairing the 145-foot-long, 15-foot-high, 100-year-old dam, used to divert water to cool the building, would be $700,000, which would be borne by Cascade. Estimated cost for removing it is $400,000, of which Cascade’s share will be $10,000. The rest of money is pledged by project partners TU, Riverways, American Rivers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Doris Duke Foundation through the Wildlife Conservation Society and Gillette and National Grid through Massachusetts Corporations Wetlands Restoration Partnership.
The firm of Fuss & O’Neil has completed the final engineering design, as modified by Milone and MacBroom, particularly in relation to protecting an upstream bridge on Cross Road. The engineers determined that there would be no threat to downstream structures or habitat from the project. Removal of the dam should alleviate flood threat to the former mill building and adjacent Rte. 8.
Permitting is nearly completed, with the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and the Environment granting a waiver from a full Environmental Impact Report. The state is monitoring biological life in the river before and after dam removal. There will be a public hearing before the Conservation Commission Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m., at Clarksburg Town Hall (on Rte. 8).